Counter-Strike Knife Fight Leads to Real-Life Stabbing

A seriously crazy Counter-Strike player spent seven months tracking down a guy who stabbed him in the game, so he could stab him back in real life.

We've all been in multiplayer knife fights before. Everybody agrees to put away their guns and pull out their shivs instead, and then a good time is had by all as everyone runs around stabbing the crap out of everything that moves like a bunch of ambulatory, psychotic industrial punch machines. Or maybe the other players all suck and you just want to rub their faces in it a bit. Or maybe you suck and you've burned through all your bullets, and now the best you can hope for is to go out in a blaze of glory. Whatever the case, we've all stabbed and we've all been stabbed.

But we haven't been stabbed like a French gamer by the name of Mikhael, who found himself really stabbed, and really bleeding, after he opened the door for what turned out to be a lunatic Counter-Strike player who was seriously pissed off about getting knifed in an online fight and decided it'd be a good idea to get some meatspace payback.

His assailant, 20-year-old Julien Barreaux, is also apparently a fan of old Klingon proverbs: He spent seven freakin' months plotting his revenge. Fortunately, that psychotic dedication didn't translate into any kind of follow-through, or even decent aim, as his victim survived and he was tracked down by police very quickly.

"Barreaux was arrested within the hour and told us he had wanted to see his rival wiped out for killing off his character," a police officer said during Barreaux's trial, adding that the knife had missed Mikhael's heart "by less than an inch."

"You are a menace to society," Judge Alexiane Potel told him. "I am frankly terrified of the disproportionate reaction you could have if someone looked at you the wrong way in the street." In spite of her professed terror, however, Barreaux was sentenced to only two years in jail for causing grievous bodily harm and was ordered to undergo anger management therapy and psychiatric testing, which will no doubt produce some interesting results.

I guess it's a good thing Mikhael didn't empty an Uzi into Barreaux's face.